Promises Kept One Day

Have you ever had a big build-up for an event that you thought would make you happy only to be let down? The anticipation of Christmas is always better than the actual day. It finally gets here and you go, “That’s it? It’s over? No more presents?”

The gap between expectation and reality happens in relationships too. So many marriage problems exist because the husband or wife thought marriage would solve all their personal problems and their spouse would meet all their needs. All that does is set them up for massive disappointment. No spouse can meet all your needs; only God can do that.

We set expectations for what our lives should look like and then stress out when we aren’t as successful as we think we should be, or our bodies don’t look as good as we want them to, or we still struggle with bad habits or addictions that we know we should have overcome by now.

This world we live in is not heaven. It is not perfect, and it never will be. We are not perfect, and we never will be while we’re alive on this earth. So give yourself and everyone around you a break, and remember to thank God for his grace in this broken world.

Satisfaction does not come from working really hard to make a lot of money or to achieve a bunch of accomplishments. Or, as a guy told me one time, and maybe you can relate, “I climbed the ladder of success. When I got to the top I found it was leaning against the wrong wall and I’d wasted all that effort.”

“You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it useful again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. You are the light of the world—like a city on a mountain, glowing in the night for all to see. Don’t hide your light under a basket! Instead, put it on a stand and let it shine for all. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.” (Matthew 5:13 NLT)

Our Lord is telling us that we, like salt, should make a difference in the situations we are in. Just as a little salt can either improve or worsen the flavor of something, a little influence can go a long way.

You might be the only Christian in your family … or the only Christian in your workplace … or the only Christian in your classroom … or the only Christian in your neighborhood. In fact, you may be trying to get out of an uncomfortable situation in which you find yourself.

But you may have been put there by the Lord to be an influence and, in a godly way, to move people in the right direction. God can do a lot with a little.

~Greg Laurie